Polfliet Sarah J
Psychiatry and the Law Program, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2008;36(3):369-74.
The 1990 enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and subsequent case law have established that medical board screening of physician licensure applicants for histories of mental illness or substance use may constitute discrimination. This study examines how physician licensure questionnaires have evolved since the enactment of the ADA. Specifically, we requested medical licensure applications in 2006 from all U.S. affiliated medical licensing boards (n = 54) and analyzed their mental health and substance use inquiries comparatively with application data from 1993, 1996, and 1998. Response rates were 96 percent (n = 52) for initial registration applications and 93 percent (n = 50) for renewal applications. Our results indicate that applicants in 2006, compared with applicants in the 1990s, were questioned more about past, rather than current, histories of mental illness and substance use. These findings revealed medical board practices that seem to run counter to existing court interpretations of the ADA as well as licensure guidelines established by several professional organizations.
1990年《美国残疾人法案》（ADA）的颁布以及随后的判例法规定，医学委员会对医师执照申请人进行精神疾病史或药物使用史筛查可能构成歧视。本研究考察了自ADA颁布以来医师执照调查问卷是如何演变的。具体而言，我们索取了2006年所有美国附属医学执照委员会（n = 54）的医学执照申请，并将其心理健康和药物使用询问内容与1993年、1996年和1998年的申请数据进行了比较分析。初次注册申请的回复率为96%（n = 52），续期申请的回复率为93%（n = 50）。我们的结果表明，与20世纪90年代的申请人相比，2006年的申请人被更多地问及过去而非当前的精神疾病史和药物使用史。这些发现揭示了医学委员会的做法似乎与现有法院对ADA的解释以及几个专业组织制定的执照指南背道而驰。
